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Built in 1925 as single-family homes, the Maycrest Bungalows were designed in the transitional Tudor Revival style with elements of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.

A total of four duplexes, grouped together and surrounded by grass and a central walkway, form the bungalow court, which has become an increasingly rare housing type in Los Angeles as bungalow courts have been replaced in favor of larger apartment complex developments.

The Maycrest Bungalows reflect a particularly important property type in Southern California, an area that popularized bungalows and bungalow courts in the early 20th century.

The structures on Maycrest Avenue feature wood half-timbering and steeply pitched, truncated gable roofs. Many of the bungalows also feature elements of a simplified Mission Revival style with flat roofs, clay tile caps along the parapet’s perimeter, painted stucco, and projected roof beams (vigas) in the Pueblo Indian Revival style.

Purchased by Caltrans in the 1960s to establish a right of way for the 710 freeway extension, the Maycrest Bungalows were damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and fell into abandonment and disrepair. This led to blight and crime, and the bungalows became a stop for drug users, the homeless, and prostitutes.

In 2003, the Eastside Café was founded in a nearby building and began holding events, which eventually put a halt to the bungalow’s trespassers and to the crimes that some of them were committing. Out of the Café, the El Sereno Bungalows Collective (now called Caracol Autonomo) was formed in 2007, and they organized a local community consulta (inquiry) to learn what more than 500 families and over 30 local businesses wanted for the bungalows’ future.

Their report showed that the vast majority of those surveyed wanted the bungalows to be rehabilitated and adaptively reused as multi-use community arts and educational spaces.

Today, Caracol Autonomo continues to work on an agreement that would allow them to lease or buy the bungalows’ property from Caltrans.

Espanol:

Purchased by Caltrans in the 1960s to establish a right of way for the 710 freeway extension, the Maycrest Bungalows were damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake and fell into abandonment and disrepair. This led to blight and crime, and the bungalows became a stop for drug users, the homeless, and prostitutes.

In 2003, the Eastside Café was founded in a nearby building and began holding events, which eventually put a halt to the bungalow’s trespassers and to the crimes that some of them were committing. Out of the Café, the El Sereno Bungalows Collective (now called Caracol Autonomo) was formed in 2007, and they organized a local community consulta (inquiry) to learn what more than 500 families and over 30 local businesses wanted for the bungalows’ future.

Their report showed that the vast majority of those surveyed wanted the bungalows to be rehabilitated and adaptively reused as multi-use community arts and educational spaces.

Today, Caracol Autonomo continues to work on an agreement that would allow them to lease or buy the bungalows’ property from Caltrans.